The Development of Islamic Ritual: (The Formation of the Classical Islamic World)

This volume is concerned with the origins, development and character of ritual in Islam. The focus is upon the rituals associated with the five 'pillars of Islam': the credal formula, prayer, alms, fasting and pilgrimage. Since the 19th century academic scholarship has sought to investigate Muslim rituals from the point of view of history, the study of religion, and the social sciences, and a set of the most important and influential contributions to this debate, some of them translated into English for the first time, is brought together here. Participation in the ritual life of Islam is for most Muslims the predominant expression of their adherence to the faith and of their religious identity. The Development of Islamic Ritual shows some of the ways in which this important aspect of Islam developed to maturity in the first centuries of Islamic history.

Table of Contents:
Contents: Introduction; The Credal Formula: On the pre-history of the credal formula ’There is no god but God’, Rudolf Macuch; On the genesis and development of the Twelver-Shi’i Three-tenet Shahadah, Joseph Eliash. Prayer: The sabbath institution in Islam, Ignaz Goldziher; On the history of Muslim worship, C.H. Becker; The origin of the Muslim laws of ritual purity, A.J. Wensinck; The development of the Adhan and Iqama of the Salat in early Islam, I.K.A. Howard; Morning and evening prayers in early Islam, Uri Rubin. Fasting: Fasting in Islam and Judaism, Georges Vajda; Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting, S.D. Goitein; The Tawwabun, atonement and ’Ashura’, G.R. Hawting. Alms: On the institution of Zakat, C. Snouck Hurgronje; Charity and social service in medieval Islam, Norman A. Stillman; Zakat in Imami Shi’i jurisprudence, from the 10th to the 16th century A.D., Norman Calder. Pilgrimage: The Mecca feast, C. Snouck Hurgronje; The religious dialectics of the Hadjdj, Hava Lazarus-Yafeh. General Considerations: Islamic duties in history, Ulrich Haarmann; Muslim festivals, Hava Lazarus-Yafeh; The flagellations of Muharram and the Shi’ite ’Ulama', Werner Ende; Islam in the mirror of ritual, William A. Graham. General index.

About the Author :
Gerald Hawting is Professor of the History of the Near and Middle East at SOAS, London, UK.